FSA President: Welcome to Campus!
September 6, 2022
Happy Academic New Year to all our members!
We are in the midst of what feels like our first proper return in several years and I’ve been delighted to see so many familiar faces around campus. I’m looking forward to greeting (and meeting!) even more of you at our Annual General Meeting in October (please email your Member Engagement Officer if you haven’t received an invitation).
While September is always exciting, this one is even more special as we prepare to sit down at the negotiating table with the employer for the first time in this round of bargaining. Our FSA Collective Agreement Committee has been working hard to translate member priorities into bargaining proposals and our Bargaining Team is looking forward to achieving the gains our members deserve.
It’s through the work of our members that sit on these and other committees that we strengthen our union. I want to encourage each of you to take the opportunity of a new academic year to get more involved. FSA members can be appointed to dozens of internal, external, and joint communities and caucuses. Visit our website for more details.
Circling back to the topic of bargaining, I want to acknowledge the sacrifices and strength of BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) members who walked picket lines across the province earlier in the summer. With 33,000 public-sector workers in the province, BCGEU has been the tip of the arrow in provincial bargaining this round. While the Health Employees Union has been first to reach a tentative agreement with the province, all public-sector unions in BC have buoyed each other in solidarity, supported by the BC Federation of Labour. The general wage increases ratified in these first Collective Agreements will set the stage for the remainder of the almost 400,000 BC public-sector workers bargaining this year, including FSA members. Our collective bargaining interests couldn’t be more closely aligned!
In late August, I visited the BCGEU Delta picket with Treasurer Terry Gordon, Executive Director Michael Conlon, and Member Engagement Officer Matt Greaves, where we expressed our thanks on behalf of the whole FSA . Our line visit was quickly by good news. The BCGEU’s picketing strategy appears to have worked because, on August 30, the union’s Public Service Bargaining Committee halted job action at worksites as a sign of progress and a show of goodwill.
I want to close by wishing you all a happy and healthy academic year. The job of any union is to make members’ work-life better in a variety of areas, and I look forward to continuing the FSA’s efforts in this cause.
Colin Jones, FSA President and Chief Negotiator